I think that is the post he was referring to, and for the record Radulov might be a lot of things, Passionate, Skilled, Confident, Energetic, and maybe even a tad Greedy, but he is not the type to take a night or a shift off, what makes you think he would take a whole season off just because he got paid.
You can make a case he is not the most loyal and a bit greedy, but to suggest he will suddenly get Lazy and take a seat in the recliner for the next 5 years because he has his money is a stretch. He is going to give Dallas everything he's got, will it be enough to be worth the money in a few years? we shall see.

Well, Crisp was a bit like him at the end of Prust's time with Montreal as well as his year in Vancouver - a roster filler that didn't really contribute anything of consequence. I thought Crisp could have been a bit more useful but the injuries were a killer for him.

Whos said anything about mailing it in, in the post you quoted? Safer to say that the guy loves money, hockey is simply means to end. He is a Jedi now is he?
Also past his prime years, like Malkin & Crosby who put up several 100+point seasons in their 20s and now is at 31/30, injuries has taken toll and still ppg players but not 100pt+ guys anymore.
And Radulov put up 18g 54pts as 30 yr old...so that is likely what to expect, not a game breaking or even all-star calibre player.
Dallas overpaid and will regret contract is my guess.

See in this scenario, if we did go with a Drouin - Galchenyuk 1 - 2 punch down the middle, it would have been of paramount importance to keep Radulov,. The fact it was not treated as something that was dire, suggests to me, that Drouin was the replacement plan at RW if Radulov could not come in at the price they wanted. They went to the negotiating table with that in mind, that they didn't HAVE to re-sign him at all costs because they see Drouin as a Winger. If it was the case where they saw him as a potential top line center and also see Galchenyuk as a #2 Center, then they would have treated the Radulov negotiation as if they need him no matter what, and fork over the money to get it done, we didn't see that level of desperation in their negotiation at all.
then you would have a core top 6 all sticking together for more than one season that looks like
Pacioretty - Drouin - Radulov
Lehkonen - Galchenyuk - Gallagher
That plan needed to be agreed to, and followed, prior to July 1st by Management, if that is the look you are going for, and it is a pretty damn good look I have to admit, it needed to be a plan before July 1st. There are many different plans they could have moved forward with during this offseason, this would have been one I could get behind, but that ship has sailed, and it really looks like they never had a plan to go with Drouin and Galchenyuk as the top 6 centers from the get go.

Radulov in public "I love Montreal, love the fans..", behind closed door to agent "Get us the most $ you can...somewhere with low taxs, lots of sun and no f'in snow!"
And those who think all Habs needed to do was offer up more $$, how sure are you that would even do it?
"Either Alexander Radulov is trying to be extremely cagey in his contract negotiations, or he has no intention of returning to the Montreal Canadiens come the start of the 2017-2018 National Hockey League season. "

I think I have to agree with the we should have signed Radulov mentality despite the cost. The reason being that it's not like we once again saved the cap space for something else specific and we would have been able to unload cap space in the future if we needed it for something else.
I was also one of the people who were over the top disappointed when we didn't resign Radulov though so I'm on the biased side of the fence.
With that being said, it doesn't seem like Radulov or his agent were overly cordial throughout the process and maybe it just wouldn't have been possible to sign him unless we truly did have to overpay him perhaps even more than Dallas did. I see it as a possibility and in that case, there's really no blame to be placed.
What I do think is that Jagr could be the poor man's version of Radulov just like we signed Streit when we knew Markov wouldn't be back. I don't think Streit is Markov's replacement and Jagr probably wouldn't replace Radulov fully at this point but Jagr's strength on the puck is similar to Radulov and I don't really view Drouin as Radulov's replacement. At this point he is younger and probably has a higher ceiling than Radulov. But we did gain him and then lose Radulov. I agree had we kept Radulov, our offense could have been very dangerous and up there competitive with the rest of the league.

While I agree Radulov will probably give his all throughout his contract, the guy just loves playing hockey and competing. I still can't get behind giving him that much money and term. I figure he is good for another couple seasons for sure but by year 3-5 I think it will start to look a lot like the Plek contract.
This is a guy that plays physical and with an edge. Hell you could even see it at points last year the guy is slowing down.
I still think it's better to try and fill the hole we need to fill with that money. Will that hole be filled still remains to be seen.